The ashes left by the Upper Rank siblings vanished completely into the deepest darkness before dawn.
The nauseating demonic aura that had lingered all night dissipated with them.
The battle, it seemed, was truly over.
High above, the purple giant, majestic as a god, began crumbling inch by inch after losing its target, turning into purple motes that danced across the sky like fireflies offered to soothe the souls lost in this brutal battle.
At the center of those motes, Uesugi Sasuke's figure reappeared.
He suddenly dropped to one knee, bracing one hand heavily against the shattered roof tiles to barely keep himself from collapsing.
Two streams of blood slowly trickled from the corners of his tightly closed eyes, leaving two glaring trails down his pale cheeks.
Overusing his Mangekyō Sharingan, especially that final Susanoo Chidori, infused with an enormous amount of Lightning Release chakra, had all but drained his ocular power and chakra.
Now, he barely had enough strength left to stand.
But his attention was not on himself.
He raised his head with difficulty, his eyes, now black again, looking through the drifting smoke and dust toward another figure.
Tengen Uzui.
The man who had just been laughing wildly like the God of Festivals, staking his life to create an opening for him, still stood there quietly.
He still held his twin blades crossed in the posture he had used to trap his enemy's weapons, his towering body like a statue.
"Lord Tengen!"
Hinatsuru, Makio, and Suma scrambled over from afar under Inosuke's protection, their faces filled with joy mingled with tears and dust.
"You won! You won, Lord Tengen!"
However, their cheers cut off abruptly as they approached Tengen Uzui.
Thud.
It was as though the invisible string holding his body upright had finally snapped after confirming